Cops: CEG president's BAC registered 0.20

Tucker charged with aggravated drunken driving, police say

Updated 7:18 am, Tuesday, May 7, 2013

F. Michael Tucker, president and CEO of the Center for Economic Growth, is shown in a 2012 file photo. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union archive)

F. Michael Tucker, president and CEO of the Center for Economic Growth, is shown in a 2012 file photo. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union archive)

Photo: Skip Dickstein

Cops: CEG president's BAC registered 0.20

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Guilderland

F. Michael Tucker, the president of the Center for Economic Growth, had a blood-alcohol content of more than twice the legal limit when he was charged Friday night with aggravated drunken driving in the parking lot of a Stuyvesant Plaza restaurant, according to police.

Arrest records show that Tucker, the leader and visible face of one of the area's largest business-fostering organizations, allegedly had a BAC of 0.20 percent after town police found him drunk in the driver's seat of his Audi sedan outside Creo.

Police were contacted by someone who works at Creo, records show, who told the cops two intoxicated people were in a car in the parking lot.

Police said they found Tucker in the parked car with his keys in the ignition and the motor running.

While speaking with police from the driver's seat, Tucker had "glassy/watery eyes, impaired speech, impaired motor coordination and an odor of alcoholic beverage on his breath," police said.

Tucker then got out of the car before police asked him to do so and failed several field sobriety tests, including a request to recite the alphabet correctly from C to X police said. Tucker tested positive for alcohol on a prescreening test and was taken into custody, where he blew a 0.20 percent BAC on a chemical test, police said.

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Because his BAC was more than 0.18, Tucker, 58, was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and fine of $1,000 to $2,500. If he is convicted, Tucker could lose his driver's license for at least one year.

The Delmar resident was released after his arrest and is scheduled to appear May 16 in Town Court.

Attorney E. Stewart Jones said Tucker was only in the car to charge his cellphone.

"He is prepared to accept responsibility for his conduct and will deal with it within the legal system," Jones told the Times Union on Sunday.

Well-known in local political and business circles, Tucker has served as president of the Center for Economic Growth since March 2007 and is on the boards of several not-for-profit organizations throughout the area, according to CEG's website. Tucker also serves as president of the Harriman Research and Technology Development Corp., which has long sought to turn the 330-acre Harriman State Office Campus into a world-class technological park.